Archive

I very common question that I’m asked is that when this vehicle is guzzling so much time, effort and money why don’t I sell that off and buy a Toyota Fortuner or the newly launched Pajero Sports.
Well the explanation is not so simple to answer in a short writeup, still I’ll try. No doubt both the vehicles the T Fort and the P-Sports are fanatic vehicles but I have only one basis of comparison, the Landcruiser 80 Series which I’ve driven now for 58000 Kms in about 2.5 Years.
I’ve driven the Fortuner and didn’t like it, this is obviously when comparing it to my vehicle. I find the drivability, road presence, ability to repair and get it serviced much better.
The thought of replacing the TLC with the T-Fort came to my mind too. I’ve spent close to 2.5L on the vehicle in the last 2.5 Years due to the Old Age factor. On a totality I’ve spent much more but I’m not counting expenses like Insurance, Accidental Repair, Normal Service & Tyres in this calculation as I would have spent a similar amount on the vehicle had it been a T-Fort or Pajero Sports.
Now comes the drivability . I like driving the TLC much more than I did the T-Fort, though I’ll agree that I drove the TFort only for a short duration, but still I could gauge it, on maybe an overall level. One has to really drive it to experience what kind of a vehicle this(Landcruiser) is. Additionally I’m a person with a slightly heavy foot, meaning though I don’t drive fast but I like to let the suspension do the work while driving over potholes, bad road and obviously no roads. And yes,I’ve have driven it in mostly all kinds of terrains. For example once each to Leh, Ladakh, Lahual Spiti, 3 trips as a Rally Marshal to the Desert Storm, a trip to Goa and back, Diu & Gir, to name a few. Yes, I’ve had my share of hiccups with the vehicle with occasional breakdowns, Tyre bursts, fan belts breaking, power steering pump packing up, etc but most of these factors were due to the Old Age of the vehicle and owner error, which I believe and practice, that if preventive maintenance is done, can be handled.

Regarding the time, yes it take a bit of time and I do have drivers who can goto the workshop and stand on the heads of the mechanics to get the job done. They do infact when I get the normal services done. However whenever something critical needs to be done I prefer to be there personally due to only one reason, cauz I enjoy it and want to learn from it. Plus share it with the world.

Now comes the part on the amount of dough that I’ve spent on the vehicle till date. I’ve spent 2.5 lacs On the vehicle till date but the way I see it, the 2.50 lacs I spent isn’t all loss. Like I bought the vehicle for an amount that today wouldn’t even be enough to buy a brand new Mahindra Scorpio 4×4 or a Tata Safari, so I believe that I have much better vehicle comfort wise viz a viz the above tow. Now on the worst case seaniro I can sell it easily for the same amount of money that I bought it for, infact,slightly more. So reasonably ,even if I can sell it for the same amount of money I bought it for,I’ll end up losing 2.5 big ones. If that’s the case, I take not like this that I’ve haven’t lost anything atall. Why you may ask? Because had it been a T-Fort I would have lost much more on the depreciation on the vehicle than I’m losing on the TLC today. Additionally the bill has run up a bit high (some may think) is because I get all the work done from Toyota Authorized Workshop and not from road side mechanics. Further any or all the parts that go bad, I have a a habit of replacing them with brand new OEM replacements. So they are bound to cost a bit more.
The reason I blog the goings of my vehicle is that, I want to share it with the world so that tomorrow anyone wanting to walk the same path know exactly what to expect and learn from my experiences.
Now comes to the point on the reliability of the vehicle. I simply say that even if for once I thought that the vehicle is unsafe, I, for all the money in the world wouldn’t risk taking my children for out station family vacations. That’s all I can say.
Cheers guys.

Like this:

20th March 2013
We started the day today on a very easy note. Got up lazily in the morning and checked out of the Hotel Hoka at approx 11am after having a scrumptious breakfast. We had seen the rest of Diu (actually nothing much to see as it’s quite a small town and all the places to visit are in the same vicinity) except the Diu Fort, yesterday itself, so we thought that we’ll visit The Diu Fort in the morning and then make a start for Gir, contrary to our earlier plan of halting at Diu for another day.
So we were at the Fort before 12 and spent a good 90 mins here. Thank god we didn’t miss this place. This should be on the itinerary of anyone who visits the beautiful town of Diu. Will be sharing pictures of the Fort when I’m back home. We again went back to the hotel to get packed sandwiches for the kids, and by the time we started for Gir it was 10 minutes to 2PM.
We took the most direct route to SASAN GIR and covered 98 Kms in about 90 mins.
The routes we took was through Tad, Dolasa, Kodinar (bypass), Prachi, Madhopur, Talala, Sasan Gir & Balchel. Our Guest House is in this small village near Sasan Gir.
It’s more of a home stay facility than a proper hotel property. It’s 1 Km inside the jungle and last time I was at this place I could hear the Lions roaring during the night, it was a wonderful experience. The guy who owns this property is the sarpanch of this village and stays here with his family. Extremely warm and always ready to help. Though I’m coming here only for the second time, I feel like I was meeting a very old friend when I met him today. He owns a very big parcel of land here and is traditionally a farmer.
We guys are planning to take a walk around his farm later during the evening and Will be here for 2 nights during which we will be taking 2 jungle safaris and 1 safari in the Deviliya Park . Thereafter headed for Jamnagar on the 22nd. Haven’t finalized as yet what route we’ll be taking. All options open as of now.
Will keep you guys updated on the progress.
Cheers for now.

On the road update. Trip report DAY1 DEL-AHD :
Started early from Delhi and we’re on the road at 430am. There was a lot of truck traffic even when leaving Delhi early morning. And most of them drive as if they own the road using all the three lanes of nh8. It was like this all the way up the end of the Jaipur Bypass and wee were there at approx 830ish.Then from the Kishangarh Expressway it was a smooth sailing all the way up AHD. We went through the City of Udaipur and didn’t take the bypass as I ready somewhere that it has the tendency to clogup and I had to fuel up too. Left the City of Udaipur at approx 330PM and we’re at our hotel at 730PM. Took a right from the Chilodia Circle and reached Hotel Ginger driving via Gandhinagar. Once we reached AHD traffic was heavy but nothing that shouldn’t be expected of a big city in peak hours. Had to stop a couple of time as my son was not well. For the entire journey drove between 80 to 95 Kmph and never going above 100 during the entire journey.
Had an awesome dinner at Goverdhan Thal, more so we were very hungry and this was nearest to the hotel. However I believe that they’re loosing their touch and usp. The quality of service has really gone down over the past 3years since I’ve been visiting this outlet on what I’ve experienced.
The hotel Ginger was a mixed 1st impression. Staying here for 2
more nights so will reserve my judgement till the end of the stay.

Its that time of the year now when the summer vacations of the children start and we are planning another holiday or a Driving Vacation as I like to call it. I would be writing another blog post soon on where we will be visiting this time of the year but for now I will post the mechanical maintenance that I’ve performed on the vehicle in the last 10K Kms. The Odometer now reads 155000 Kms and there a lot that I’ve done on the vehicle in this time.

NEW ALLOY WHEEL

I bought another Alloy Rim and now after the disastrous experience of me bursting 2 tyres within 24 hours I always carry 2 spare tyres with myself.

The Path to Prestige

The concept of the 80 series was the combination of "Advanced" and "Top Quality" features at the highest level. However, the true reason why the 80 series gained worldwide attention was the fact that it able to maintain its original toughness of excellent off-road characteristics while being loyal to the above.

In 1989 regular minor changes were introduced, all in the direction of greater luxury, which led eventually to the evolutionary transformation of the ever-popular 60-series into the new 80-series. At the time the 60-series was being driven more for leisure or family use, and as a town car, than as an off-road vehicle. Over time the demand increased for more fashionable and passenger car like characteristics.

In Tarkarli I would be scouting for a Hotel or a guest house when I get there and same would be for Udaipur.

I would sincerely like to thank HV Kumar of HV Kumar – Fan, Forum & Message Board and all the members of the above FB Group who have been really helpful in providing me the detailed road book and help me plan this adventure right from the start. Thanks a lot sir(s).

As always I would be driving my Toyota Landcruiser on this trip and by the looks of it the total trip would work out to be over 4200 Kms. I plan to be back by the 27th or 28th of March 2012. Many people may ask why Goa and some of them may even ask why by road especially when air tickets are available little over of what I may spend on fuel costs. Well I’ve always been travelling by air since long and a package deal just doesn’t cut for me anymore and I feel that the adventure is missing in such a thing. Additionally I feel that if someone wants to see the real India, it can only be done when we are on ground. I am not against air travel but I feel that its more fun like this. Last year I did Delhi- Sasan Gir- Diu- Delhi and enjoyed every bit of it. Here’s the link to that https://harjeevchadha.wordpress.com/2011/11/25/delhi-ahmedabad-sasan-gir-diu-udaipur-delhi-road-trip-summary/

The following is just a broad guide to the route that I plan to take and it may differ from the actual route, especially the in/ and out of Mumbai and from Goa- Tarkarli- Mumbai from the route that’s been depicted in the following link. This link is just to give a broad overview on the route. Once I’ve completed the trip, I would be sharing the triplogs and GPX tracks for the entire trip.

The Toyota Landcruiser (TLC) has covered 4000 Kms since the suspension bushes were changed in February ’12 at 1322xx Kms. The ODO now reads 1361xx Kms. Now having driven the TLC for approx 4K kms, I’d say that I’m really happy with the way the ride quality of the vehicle has improved. Infact (strictly not a wise comparing though) I think the ride quality is even better than my 2 year old i10 that’s done 32K kms (all city driving). During this 4K kms the TLC did marshal duty for 3300 Kms in Maruti Suzuki Desert Storm storm which included driving 25%, off-road and very very bad roads, especially my drive from Delhi to Sardarsher. Here is the update that I shared on a social network for the Delhi to Sardarsher route

Drove from Delhi to Sardarshahar took the following route Delhi- Rohtak- Jhajjar- CharkhiDadri- Loharu- Pilani- RajGarh- TaraNagar- Sardarshahar The road was bad from Loharu and we thought that after Pilani they might get a little better. But were wrong. If they were bad earlier they were very very and agaijn very pathetic after Pilani all the way upto Rajghar. It seems that only BITS, Pilani is good about this place. The only consolation was that there was little to no traffic. Just paid a bomb to get all the suspension bushes changed on my Landcruiser 😦 Worried whether it would hold. After Rajghar the roads were a little better. Would not advise anyone to travel on this route and I wouldn’t even if anyone paid me to do it. Total distance from delhi apporox 370 Kms.

So all in all I’d say it was money well spent. Other work that was done on the TLC at that time is as follows

The rear tyres were turned inside out and at the same time got the balancing /alignment done.

Topped up the GearBox oil

Changed the Rear Diff Oil

Normal Servicing (Oil /Oil Filter)

Normally I get the normal servicing done every 5K Kms but this time it was done in 4300 Kms as I was departing for a long 3.5K Kms trip. Hense I decided to do it beforehand.

During my drive though Gujrat and Rajasthan I faced the following issues with the vehicle

Head Lights

They used to switch on on their own, even when the switch was in OFF position

RPM Needle

The RPM needle started dancing , literally. Yes it started dancing to the beats of the stereo. Well not only the stereo but even when the headlamps were switched on the RPM needle used to come to zero on high beam and even on low beam, they used to drop significantly. 😦

Solutions to the above 2 issues

A faulty relay was the culprit in the FUSE BOX. This was the Toyota OEM Relay and not the after market ones that I’d put. This was promptly changed.

An earth grounding wire was the culprit in this case. This was the main cable that runs from the -ve terminal of the battery to the body panel. This too was promptly replaced.

At the same time the power window motor for the Rear Left door was replaced. The Rear Right power window along with the central locking motors (guns as the mechanic was referring it), key type,for all the doors will be attended too this weekend. And during the next week I am getting it serviced again as I am off to Mumbai and Goa (Annual vacation time ) in this month. Just finalised my Goa bookings. So the vehicle and its owner is ready for another trip of 4000-4500 Kms. Will keep the thread updated.